59 8 



APPENDIX. 



KCELREUTER was probably the first amongst us to raise hybrid plants, his 

 experiments in that direction having taken place early in the eighteenth 

 century; and Linnaeus gave an impetus to the study of vegetable sexuality 

 by the publication of his views on the subject in his ' Fundamenta Botanica.' 

 Gaertner and Wichura also threw much light on the question of hybridity 

 by their experiments made on the Continent ; and in this country the late 

 Dean Herbert stimulated horticulturists by the production of numerous 

 beautiful hybrids, and also by the publication of his celebrated paper on 

 ' Hybridisation among Vegetables ' in the ' Journal ' of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, vol. ii. (1847), pp. 1-81. Artificial hybridisation and 

 cross-breeding had now, in fact, become general. About this time 

 Fuchsias and Calceolarias became greatly improved, as were also Gladioli, 

 Rhododendrons, and Camellias ; nor were ornamental plants alone the 

 subjects of ennoblement, inasmuch as Knight had previously directed his 

 attention to the amelioration of Apples, Pears, Plums, Peaches, Cherries, 

 and Peas, and with great success, some of his seedlings being still popular in 

 our gardens, notably Knight's Monarch Pear and his Marrow Peas. Among 

 the earlier and most successful hybridisers in this country after Dean Her- 

 bert may be named Mr James Cunningham, Messrs Colville, Mr Ander- 

 son-Henry, Mr Gowen, Mr J. Standish, and Messrs Rollisson, to the last 

 of whom we are indebted for forty or fifty varieties of the most beautiful 

 seedling or rather hybrid Heaths. About 1854, Mr J. Dominy raised the 

 first hybrid Orchid (Calanthe Dominiand). This has been succeeded by 

 about fifty hybrids belonging to other genera, and it is not too much to 

 say that the production of these hybrids has completely revolutionised the 

 somewhat restricted views formerly held by botanists as to the generic 

 and specific distinctions of Orchidaceous plants. At the present date 

 hybridisation and cross-breeding are everywhere largely practised, not 

 only in European gardens, but also in those of Japan and China, where, 

 indeed, the arts of culture and plant improvement by selection and graft- 

 ing have been carried on from time immemorial. Their improved races 

 of Primulas, . Azaleas, Lilies, Diospyros, Pinks, Irids, Chrysanthemums, 

 and Moutan Peonies, are indeed as wonderful in their way as anything 

 produced by hybridisers in this country. New forms among plants, the 

 result of hybridisation, may be said to constitute one of the most remunera- 

 tive branches of the nurseryman's business ; but apart from all considera- 

 tions of profit, cross-breeding deserves the most careful attention. Mr 

 Darwin's new book on ' Cross-fertilisation' * is just to hand as this sheet 



* Murray, London : 1876. 



